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"Bitch! You broke ain, the baton h I thought I heard the bone buckle as another hand closed around the wrist holding the baton The hand jerked away suddenly, and I focused my attention on Grabby Hands, hunched in front of me He leaned over, oblivious to me now as he tried to reset his nose I sla him unconscious

A hand wrapped around the back ofainst the wall, h wooden plank The pain hadlimp and useless at my sides when Yellow Teeth pinned me to the ith his hips I barely kept hold of the baton as his belt buckle dug into ht "Oh, sweetheart, you just rowl behind us

I knew that growl I’d heardor a cranky, city-dwelling bear That was the growl of a pissed-off olf And I’d never been so happy to hear it in my entire life

Yellow Teeth kept his hand at my throat as he turned I’d expected to see fur and four paws over lowing an eerie gold, lips pulled back froer and sharper

"Mind your own business," Yellow Teeth grunted as he threw his weight againstbody "Just walk away"

Caleb didn’t like that, if his sharper groere any indication A strange, wars My fingers relaxed and held their grip on the baton The pain in rip on my throat didn’t matter I was safe

And while I was ridiculously happy to see hi hi I needed to deal as explaining to the state police o guys I’d beaten up in a parking lot seeiant wolf That was the sort of thing that got attention

"Caleb, don’t," I said in a fir with his face?" Yellow Teeth wheezed, his grip on

"Caleb, cal

A ripple of golden light spread froht In front of hu before This was the definition of screwed

"What’s wrong with this guy?" Yellow Teeth’s fingers slipped off ofover as his limbs stretched into inhuman shapes

"Stop," I told hi Yellow Teeth’s throat out "Shit"

I grabbed Yellow Teeth’s head, as if I was about to give hi, wet kiss, only to yank hard as I turned and rah force not to fracture his skull He yelped and went limp I dropped his leaden, unconscious body next to his equally knocked-out friend

Caleb snarled and lunged toward the under his skin, cheekbones bulging and exaggerated as they moved into their canine shape His teeth stretched and sharpened into fangs to ertips And for some stupid reason I could not explain, I stepped between the insta-wolf andainst e to bury ht Defuse public olf transformation now Evaluate need for heavy doses of antipsychotic ave way to war around lanced up to see Caleb’s hue His eyes darkened from that predatory yellow back to their sape up at him, even as he ht to behold He’d changed back mid-phase I didn’t know that was possible, especially when the olf in question was this pissed off Maggie was one of the most in-control wolves I’d ever met, and it could take her an hour to cory

Caleb’s arled toward Grabby Hands and Yellow Teeth I wedged ht, but it was like trying to change the direction of a tank He just dragged ainst the rough concrete

"Stop," I told him firmly "Caleb, you coiant newspaper and whack you on the nose!"

Angry, punctuated breaths puffed through his nostrils as his black eyes stared down at ry chuff, he pulledto the list of interesting angry sounds Caleb rowls died down to a ruainst him, my arms suddenly stone-heavy I dropped the baton to the asphalt with a clang as I wrappedevened out, and his hands relaxed against the s wide circles He reluctantly pulled away, cupping my face between his hands as he ca his eyes roa that all of my parts were still intact He looked a little dazed, and then his pupils snapped back into focus

And he did not look happy

"What the hell were you thinking?" he de my arms "I told you to stay with me I told you I would keep you safe And you run off the minute my head is turned? Do you realize what could have just happened to you?"

Right, ere not going to discuss the fact that he’d nearly phased in front of ht not have realized he was doing it The more time olves spent alone, away from their pack, the less aware they were of their "wolf ti cycle that he believed it when Eli made it look as if he’d cos

I wouldn’t ask how Caleb was able to find nore it in favor of being irritated about the whole shaking-ainst Caleb’s seely immobile chest until he relinquished his hold on my waist I huffed "I left because I could Because I a me nervous with all your bullet wounds and plastic handcuffs I decided I was better off on lanced down at the unconsciousunder control"

"I was doing just fine," Ihis quote-unquote coht and conscious So I think that means I win And frankly, I did it without much help from you You just distracted them and made scary faces"